Elaine Herzberg, 49, was struck and killed while walking a bicycle across a four-lane road in Tempe, Arizona. A 44-year-old Uber test driver was at the wheel of the modified 2017 Volvo XC90. The car was in autonomous mode and had been for the 19 minutes before the crash.

According to the report, the system first observed Herzberg through its radar and LIDAR sensors, which uses light to measure distances and objects, about six seconds before hitting her. At first the computer classified her as an "unknown object," then as a vehicle, and then as a bicyclePrevious reports had come out that the software misclassified Herzberg. Read more...

Beginning today, Facebook and Instaram are requiring all U.S ads with any type of political content to be labeled with information on who paid for the ad. This includes not just campaign ads, but any type of ad that pertains to a political issue, such as tax policy or immigration.

Besides the disclosure on who paid for it, people who come across the ads will also be able to click into a dedicated archive with additional information about the advertiser, such as their age, location, and gender, as well as their budget for that campaign. Read more...

The new details were discovered in a document made available by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, the same judge who presided over the Apple v. Samsung trial. The lawsuit alleges "Touch Disease," which can cause the touchscreen on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to flicker and become unresponsive, is directly related to its structurally weak aluminum casing. Read more...

Smart weed-killing robots are here and they have the potential to disrupt the entire pesticide industryEcoRobotix claims their robot could reduce the use of herbicide by 20 percent. Other examples include Blue River, a startup that develops smart agriculture equipment, and University of Sydney, which has built its own entire series of agri-bots. Read more...

As you might guess, these highly valued professions are commensurately rewarding. In fact, the average IT gig pays $87K a year and is likely to last, as IT unemployment is currently below 2.5%. There’s also plenty of headroom in such a job, with the average computer and information systems manager making over $120K. But if you want to stake your claim in this booming market, and open up those six-figure opportunities, you’ll need to know a lot more than, “Try turning it off and on again.” You’ll need to get certified. Read more...

If you've ever wanted to know exactly where your Amazon package is on delivery day, now you can find that out.

Amazon Map Tracking is now available for all U.S. customers and does what the name suggests. You'll be able to track your package on a map in real time, get an estimated delivery time, and see how many stops it is awayAndroidPolice first spotted the larger rollout, and Amazon has confirmed the launch to Mashable.

"The Amazon Map Tracking feature is another delivery innovation we are working on to improve convenience for our customers and provide them greater visibility into their deliveries," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Read more...

These thirsty emails aren't the handiwork of a scorned ex—they're from brands complying with Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation by asking us if we'd like to remain subscribed to their marketing emails.

So, let us all take this opportunity to clean out our poor, detritus-ridden inboxes. Thank you, GDPR, for this enormous favour.

But, before we count all our chickens, let's just take a second to make sure we know precisely how to unburden ourselves of the scourge of marketing emails. Mashable spoke to GDPR experts to find out precisely what we need to do to be free once and for all. Read more...

Don’t read this post aloudThey’re listening. Oh, did you think you were safe from hackers hijacking your peripherals when you bought that webcam cover? That’s only one finger in the dam!

Hackers can also snoop on you via your devices' internal microphones. And once a cyber-invader infiltrates your device, it’s possible they could be listening to everything you say. It’s time to go on lock-down.

Nope Portable Sound Microphone Blockers (yes that's what they're called) block unauthorized surveillance by cutting off the sound at the source. Safeguard two of your devices today for 22% off the standard price while these mic plugs are on sale. Read more...

The only thing you should get wrapped up in at the gym is your next set, or maybe your rockin' playlist — not your headphone wires. Save big on a set of TREBLAB XR100 wireless headphones that are on sale now for less than $25.

According to the product page, these headphones offer high-def sound and a secure fit to prevent them from slipping out. They boast up to nine hours of playtime and are also water and sweat proof so your more intense workouts won't affect them. There's a built-in microphone as well as music controls right at your fingertips. Read more...

Putting a Nintendo Switch inside a PC might be the best gaming combination ever conceived.

This custom PC made by Maingear, known as the F131, is a wonderfully vibrant creation covered in bright colors and LEDs, but is also an extremely beefy machine with two Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards and an Intel i9 processor. What makes it extra special though is the built-in dock for the Nintendo Switch, which appears to allow you to plug in and play the Switch through the PC and capture card, which is very convenient.

This manipulation can include practices such as spoofing (placing large numbers of buy or sell orders with no intent to fill them) and wash trading (simultaneously buying and selling the same asset to create fake volume on the market). You will rarely see these illegal methods used in established stock markets, but some may be using them to profit in the largely unregulated world of cryptocurrencies, teeming with millions of inexperienced traders. Read more...

It's the final countdown. The deadline for compliance with Europe's new privacy laws, the GDPR, is Friday, May 25. That means that companies across the internet are asking, in plain and recognizable language, all of their customers to review usually-skipped over privacy settings — including Facebook. Hallelujah.

On Thursday, CNBC reported that Facebook will start rolling out GDPR-compliant privacy check-ups to users across the world. They specifically ask users to review what kind of data they consent to for ad targeting, the personal information (such as religious affiliation) that they share, and whether they'll allow facial recognition. Read more...

As anyone who's dropped their phone knows, a case is an absolute must — and perhaps even more so with the iPhone X or the Samsung Galaxy S9. Save 30% on Caseology cases on Amazon today, some of which are marked down to just $10.49.

There are also great deals on coffee makers from brands like Nespresso to get that sweet morning pick-me-up, plus save on Bose wireless headphones of all shapes and sizes, and get discounts on popular Amazon devices like the Amazon Tap.

Cast your eye through the reams of unread emails currently rattling around your personal inbox and you'll see a string of subject lines resembling break-up texts.

If your inbox is anything like mine in the run-up to GDPR coming into effect on 25 May, then your inbox will be bursting with subject lines like: "is it really over," "no more secrets between us," "please don't go," "don't let this be goodbye," and "let's be friends."

Nope it's not our thirsty exes that have come a-calling: It's GDPR knocking at our door. Or, rather, brands complying with Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation by asking us if we'd like to remain subscribed to their emails. Read more...

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is looking to circumvent regulatory hurdles and add new coins to its portfolio with the acquisition of Paradex, a service which allows users to trade cryptocurrencies without relying on a trusted third party.

Paradex, which launched in beta in January 2018, is a so-called relayer built on top of the 0x platform. This means it provides users with a way to trade ERC20 tokens — a large ecosystem of cryptocurrencies built on top of Ethereum — directly from their digital wallets.

This is an important move for Coinbase, which is the top U.S. cryptocurrency exchange with more than 20 million customer accounts and $20 billion in crypto-assets. The exchange currently lists only four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Despite customer demand for more (there are thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, 23 of them with a market cap of over $1 billion), Coinbase has been wary of adding new coins due to regulatory pressure from the SEC, which (possibly) sees many of these as unregulated and unregistered securities. Read more...

Businesses and companies who deal with European users are required to comply with rules on how they collect, secure, and handle their data — or face severe penalties.

With companies racing to comply with GDPR, Instapaper users were sent an email notifying them that the service would be blocked off in Europe on Thursday — giving them less than 24 hours notice. Read more...

The social network today announced a series of efforts meant to change public perception of fake news on the platform, including a new "Inside Feed" website, a documentary-style short film, and a new ad campaign to help educate the public on how to identify fake news.

The company also plans to partner with researchers to study just how much "misinformation" is on Facebook and how it affects the platform.

Much of this is similar to previous work Facebook's done around fighting fake news and other types of misinformation. But if you're wondering what the goal of all of this is, it's the newly released short film that's most illuminating. Read more...

Drifting off to the land of nod is hard in this day and age, especially when we're not entirely sure what companies are doing with our personal data.

But, GDPR—a.k.a. Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation—might offer up a little peace of mind for those of us residing in the European Union. Not only that, GDPR legislation literally doubles up as a bedtime story, thanks to a meditation and sleep app.

I mean, we all knew that legislation was a little dull, right? But who knew it could be literally soporific, eh?

Sleep and meditation app Calm is releasing an audio recording of extracts of GDPR legislation being read by the former voice of the BBC shipping forecast Peter Jefferson. Jefferson will read "the most soothing passages" from the 209-page regulation. Read more...

With Bluetooth speakers, it's simply a matter of pairing your device of choice with your speaker, and you're ready to blast that awesome playlist from anywhere. No more being tethered by an aux cable or worrying that your CD will skip. As long as you're within range (and the connection range is pretty generous), your music will always be at your fingertips.

But there are a ton of different Bluetooth speakers out there. Some can connect to multiple devices at once, and others can even connect to multiple speakers to expand the sound. Most let you take hands-free calls when your smartphone is connected, so you don't have to lift a finger. There are nice big ones with great sound, and smaller portable (even waterproof) speakers that you can take with you to the beach. Read more...

In an unhinged Twitter rant Wednesday afternoon, Grimes’s boyfriend Elon Musk proudly announced to his fanboys the world that he intends to create a website dedicated to rating individual journalists and news organization based on their supposed truthfulness.

“Going to create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication,” tweeted Musk. “Thinking of calling it Pravda ...” Read more...

When a creative crowdfunding campaign reaches its goal, that usually means that people find the prototype promising enough to part with their hard earned money and donate to the project. But when a startup raises 3000 times more than its goal? That means that the promised product must be quite monumental.

AZ Central first reported that about 200 employees at the Uber self-driving car program in Tempe, Arizona, were fired Wednesday morning. The full shutdown is expected to take a few weeks.

When the woman who was killed, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, there was a human test driver in the front seat, and in response Uber put its entire autonomous driving program on hold. Test drivers were apparently still being paid during the program freeze, at least until Wednesday's firings. Uber says it will provide career coaching and job help for its Arizona employees. Read more...

The company announced in a May 23 blog post that it would no longer require a phone number to set up two-factor authentication, and would instead allow for the use of an authenticator app. Such apps, like Google Authenticator, are widely acknowledged to be an improvement over SMS-based 2FA.

For those unfamiliar, two-factor authentication provides a second layer of security to online accounts. In addition to the standard password, you need a second factor — usually a number texted to your cellphone or generated by an authenticator app —to login. For those who worry about phishing attempts or any kind of hacking (which should be everyone on the internet), setting up 2FA is a must. Read more...

On May 22nd, Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to discuss data protection. Pro-Brexit British MEP Nigel Farage had nothing to say about Cambridge Analytica, but took the time to credit Facebook for Trump's win and Brexit. Read more...

That changes today. Apple is now offering a credit for some replacements made in 2017.

Customers with an iPhone 6 or newer model who paid for an out-of-warranty battery replacement between January 1 through December 28, 2017, can now expect a $50 credit. Apple will be reaching out to eligible customers until July 27, 2018 with instructions how to receive the credit. Read more...